e
interests when most active. He will thus be saved such blunders as
teaching in December a literature lesson on _An Apple Orchard in the
Spring_, or assigning a composition on "Tobogganing" in June, because he
realizes that the interest in these topics is not then active. Each
season, each month of the year, each festival and holiday has its own
particular interests, which may be effectively utilized by the
presentation of appropriate materials in literature, in composition, in
nature study, and in history. A current event may be taken advantage of
to teach an important lesson in history or civics. For instance, an
election may be made the occasion of a lesson on voting by ballot, a
miniature election being conducted for that purpose.

4. When the teacher appreciates the extent of the capacities of
children, he will not make too heavy demands upon their powers of
logical reasoning by introducing too soon the study of formal grammar or
the solution of difficult arithmetical problems. When he knows that the
period from eight to twelve is the habit-forming period, he will
stress, during these years such things as mechanical accuracy in the
fundamental rules in arithmetic, the memorization of gems of poetry, and
the cultivation of right physical and moral habits. When he knows the
influence of motor expression in giving definiteness, vividness, and
permanency to ideas, he will have much work in drawing, modelling,
constructive work, dramatization, and oral and written expression.

METHODS OF CHILD STUDY

=A. Observation.=--From the teacher's standpoint the method of
observation of individual children is the most practicable. He has the
material for his observations constantly before him. He soon discovers
that one pupil is clever, another dull; that one excels in arithmetic,
another in history; that one is inclined to jump to conclusions, another
is slow and deliberate. He is thus able to adapt his methods to meet
individual requirements. But however advantageous this may be from the
practical point of view, it must be noted that the facts thus secured
are individual and not universal. Such child study does not in itself
carry one very far. To be of real value to the teacher, these particular
facts must be recognized as illustrative of a general law. When the
teacher discovers, for instance, that nobody in his class responds very
heartily to an abstract discussion of the rabbit, but that everybody is
intensely interes